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MURRAY — We’ve seen a lot of ingenuity in our community to meet the demand for personal protective equipment worn by health care workers during the COVID-19 crisis.
Intermountain Healthcare is now manufacturing face shields to be shared with hospitals across the state.
These are the large clear plastic face shields health care workers wear on the outside of their medical masks when treating people for COVID-19.
“There weren’t enough in the market, so, what can we do about that?” asked Scott Schofield, director of supply chain services at Intermountain Healthcare.
Schofield asked the question three weeks ago when it became obvious Utah would eventually run out of critical personal protective equipment in its hospitals if something wasn’t done.
“It started out as an idea,” said Schofield.
He said they wanted to take care of face shields for their hospitals and every other hospital in the state that was calling to find out about the supply of face shields.
“So, we jumped in and went to work,” he said.
Three weeks later, they have made nearly 30,000 face shields and were producing 3,000 to 4,000 each day.
To help keep the project moving, they received raw material donations from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and design help from the University of Utah. Volunteers were also helping with production.
“This has been so rewarding,” said Schofield. “Honestly, to be able to do something that is in critical need, that is really making an impact with our caregivers — keeping them safe — has meant all the world to me and everybody else who has worked with me on this project.”
The face shields are lightweight, functional and easy to reuse. They are made from a polycarbonate material that is thick, strong and flexible.
The shields are cut in the Intermountain sign shop in Utah County and assembled in Midvale.
“If the shield gets dirty, they can clean it with the regular cleaning protocol,” Schofield said.
Intermountain Healthcare officials were distributing those face shields to hospitals and other healthcare organizations that need them.
“It’s an important part of PPE because it extends the life of the N95 mask and protects the caregiver from any kind of splashback, or whatever to the eyes, the face and nose,” Schofield said. “It’s just good all-American ingenuity; we’re just pulling together what we have to make something work.”
